Karis is the name of the new worship service started on Sunday evenings in September 2010. The band, drama, speaker, liturgy, and ambiance of Karis are all designed to spiritually engage Jr High and High School youth. But why this funny Greek name for the new service? Karis is a big time, meaty, meaningful, and highly used word in the Bible. In the Old Testament, one Psalmist acknowledges that some people’s lips have been anointed with karis (Psalm 45:2). Through God’s divine wisdom, He gives karis to both the humble (Proverbs 3:34), the wicked (Isaiah 26:10), and over and over again to unfaithful Israel (Exodus-Malachi). The word karis is used over 122 times in the 27 books of the New Testament. It is an important word. The meaning of the word is often confused with justice, mercy and kindness.
But karis goes way beyond just someone being nice to you when they should have punished you for something you did wrong. The beauty of karis for we who believe in Jesus Christ is that when we continually do wrong in our lives, God never stops seeing His Son Jesus as the ransom for our sins. The karis of Jesus covers up our sin and puts us in the right place (justified) with God. Because of karis, we have been pronounced in God’s courtroom as “forgiven.” But for those who are still spinning their worldly wheels trying to find hope, peace, love and karis, we all who have been saved are given an amazing chance to be apart of something bigger than ourselves. We get to bring God’s karis to them: our friends, coworkers, neighbors, and even maybe someone who walks into this new Karis worship service looking for help.
To see and read more about our Karis youth service, please visit Karis Youth.
His karis is enough,
DCE Jake